Copied library shows wrong playlists

[Howard Brazee]

I copied my whole iTunes library to my wife's iMac. I see that "/Users/********/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml/iTunes Music Library.xml" has the same date on both computers.

But when I open iTunes on my wife's computer, I see playlists that aren't current on my iMac.

Both computers have a "iTunes Library.XML" file from August 10, 2016.

I'm thinking I need to copy my iTunes Music Library to her iTunes Library, to get my current playlists, which will work for now, but I'll have to do it again next time I synchronize our iTunes. Is there a way to tell iTunes which file to use?

 

[Howard Brazee]

I just noticed in my iTunes. Opening up Devices for my iPad & iPhone, I see playlists with old playlist names. (They also show ony a few books, even though iBooks has a huge library synchronized from my iMac.

 

[cjmnews]

Well, that was a good try, but now how you copy a library from a PC to a Mac.

First off the iTunes Library.xml file is nearly useless. You can rebuild a library from the XML file but that is about it. So ignore the iTunes Library.xml file.

This only works if all of your music was under the iTunes folder in the PC. Typically located in C:\Users\<loginname>\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music (some older libraries will use ...\iTunes\iTunes Music). I am assuming that your music was there and you got it all copied over.

Doing this will eliminate the existing library on the iMac. I am assuming that your book collection is on a different iMac than the one you are updating. A notation I use <loginname> is replaced with your user login name, and any other <> is replaced with the value needed.

1. On the PC, navigate to C:\Users\<loginname>\Music\iTunes copy EVERYTHING in this folder to an external hard drive, USB drive, or network drive. This should be a large transfer depending on the size of your library. Mine is about 30GB.
2. On the iMac, navigate to MacintoshHD/Users/<loginname>/Music/iTunes. Delete everything here. Then copy the files and folders that you copied from the PC here.
3. On the iMac, hold the Op[tion key and start iTunes. In the Choose iTunes Library window click on Choose Library, the window should open in Music, select iTunes, then select iTunes Music Library.itl (not XML) then click Open.
4. On the iMac iTunes should open and show you the same playlists and music as was on the PC.
5. On the iMac, play a track, it should play or ask you to locate the file. Because this came from the PC it is likely to ask to locate it since the path to it does not exist. You can find the track in MacintoshHD/Users/<loginname>/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/<artist>/<album>/<songname>.<ext>

Let me know if you get stuck somewhere.

 

[Howard Brazee]

That's pretty much how I copied it from a PC to my Mac around a decade ago. I don't remember whether my wife or I got our first Mac, but recently I copied my iMac's iTunes folder to her Mac. Everything was visible, except the playlists were wrong.

Today I copied my whole music folder to her Mac. When running iTunes on her computer, it logged in as me, so I had to log off and log on as her. I don't know where the file is that tells who is logging on. But the playlists are current. For now. I'd like to know where the file is that has the playlists.

And while in iTunes on either of our Macs, under devices, I look at our iPhones and my iPad, and they see different playlists than iTunes sees for itself. I have Apple Music turned on.

 

[cjmnews]

The default location of the iTunes Library file and the login name determines the playlists and content.

That default location is MacintoshHD/Users/<loginname>/Music/iTunes and the file is usually name iTunes Library.itl but in your case it may be named iTunes Music Library.itl

Since the log in name is in the path, the library file can be different with different users. So you may have to copy the library to your wife's login to have the same playlists and tracks.

The last line has me concerned a bit. One is that I never bothered to learn Apple Music as I am not interested in paying $120/year for it and the other is that you have not enabled it to all devices (every iPhone, iPad, and iTunes needs to turn this on to use it)

The playlists are located in the device and with Apple Music, you can share them. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207948 and https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207542

Lots of useful information here too https://www.imore.com/apple-music

 

[Howard Brazee]

I enabled Apple Music for all of my devices. But I only use it with my HomePod, so that it can see most of my playlists on my Mac.